Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

This last Thursday, Cooper and I went on a field trip with our little preschool. We are both absolutely loving preschool for some of the same reasons, and for some different reasons too. Cooper loves being with two of his good friends. I love being with two of my good friends too, it's great that they happen to be the moms of Cooper's friends. Sometimes we adults get so wrapped up in talking, we loose track of time while the boys play together. Cooper loves to learn and I love how laid back our preschool is. Oh and the official name of our preschool is: The Coop-dee-poop-dee-Sully-wully-Bryce-eee-boo Preschool.

Cooper with his cart ready to pick his pumpkin.

His prefect pumpkin.

Cooper, Sully, and Bryce with their pumpkins. They barely fit in the cart, they complained, but we made them squish together. (Meany mommy awards coming our way.)

While paying for our pumpkins they became friends with this stuffed bear.

After we got our pumpkins and looked around some, we headed to another farm for lunch. there was this awesome play area there.

Cooper

Sully

Bryce

We had a fun field trip. So fun I didn't get may pictures.

Walkin babe

Much to my dismay and pleading, this little girl won't stop growing. I want her to say my baby forever. She is getting better at balancing and walking with her walker.

11 Months

 This little girl with the devilish grin turned 11 months old Monday. We all love her so much. Some of us love her a little too much at times. She loves to be loved....most of the time too. (If you know what I mean.)

And of course, she still loves those three fingers. I personally love her fohalk and the ease of styling her hair right now. I really wouldn't mind if her hair stayed short for another year.

She is getting around pretty well. Crawling, standing, cruising around furniture. She has even stood on her own for a second or two a few times.

Ring Bearer

Cooper was asked by his second cousin, Stefoni to be the ring bearer in her wedding this next summer. I got the phone conversation on video because Cooper has the best facial expressions when he is talking. You can see the video here.

Anaphylaxis

It is often hard for people to understand just how bad a peanut allergy can be, especially when the person suffers from anaphylaxis. This past week brought a comment that both hurt me as a father and angered me at the same time. It left me wondering, do people really understand what an anaphylactic reaction is and how potentially lethal it can become, because if they did, such comments would not be forthcoming. It kills me to tell Cooper, you can't have this or that, while he looks at all the "yummy" food or candy, and then see the sad look on his face. Here is a video of a man having a mild peanut reaction, Cooper's last reaction was 2-3 times this bad.

And God bless Mason, who told me he was not going to eat the "yummy" candy, because he didn't want Cooper to get sick.

Having a child with a food allergy, is not something I would wish upon anyone. It is a hard and trying road that we have to walk on a daily basis. We need to be constantly vigilant or risk potential exposure and to be more blunt potential death of a child. My only wish that food allergy and anaphylaxis was more understood.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42949566/t/allergies-scarier-bogeyman-many-kids/

Everyone should read this story.

And here are some pictures from Cooper's last visit to the ER in November after he ate a piece of candy that had a nut in it at preschool.

Sucker punch...right to the gut

That's the feeling I had when I learned on Sunday that we have lost all our pictures due to our computer crashing. I am so sad. I know we have some pictures on a back up disc, but I don't know how far back they go. The disc says "Mason's pictures as of 12/9/06". So unless it really has more current stuff on it than that, that is all we have, plus what ever I posted on the blog. 

So so sad.

Every time I think of a picture we most likely don't have anymore I feel like someone is punching me in the gut.

It makes me want to cry....

Cooper's birth.

Shiloh's birth.

And everything in between from the last 5+ years.

So sad.

If anyone has any pictures of my family, could you please email them to me? Thanks!

Soccer

 Mason started soccer this last week. Here are some pictures from his first practice and game. His team won the game 4-3 or was it 3-2? I can't remember.

 

 

 From the game.

10 Months

Shiloh girl is now 10 months. 

In the last month she has become a professional stair climber. Now if I could just get her to learn how to go down, she'd be all set. 

Shiloh loves to wave "bye". When she gets really excited she waves "bye" with both hands.

She sleeps really well most nights. She wakes up less and less nights to eat, which I for one really appreciate. 

Let's see...anything else new with her....

I can't think of anything.

So I guess this is....

The End

Preschool

I have decided to do preschool with Cooper here at home this year so I could be 100% sure he wouldn't be exposed to nuts. 

On a side note, I don't think people understand just how serious Cooper's allergy to nuts is. His allergy to nuts is life threatening. Do I need to say that one again? Yes? Okay. HIS ALLERGY TO NUTS IS LIFE THREATENING. 

What does that mean? Well it mean exactly that. If he consumes any nuts, any quantity he could very possibly die if medical intervention does not occur very quickly. This thought scares me quite a bit. It is something I worry about every time, and for the whole time, he is not in my or Jeff's care. 

I decided that was not something I wanted to worry about every time I drop him off at preschool, so that is why I have decided not to send him to preschool. 

I am already very anxious about sending him to regular public school. I picture myself accompanying him to school every day of his life until he either, can recognize when he is having an anaphylaxis reaction and knows how to use his epi pen, OR until he is no longer allergic (which will probably never happen) so back to the first option. At the very least, I am going to ensure there are no nut products in his class, including in the lunches of his fellow classmates. I plan on either requesting a meeting with all of the parents in Cooper's class each year, or sending an email to all of them in order to educate them on just how serious his allergy is. Our school has banned all nut products from one class already due to a severe nut allergy. So they already do a good job, but I know there is room for improvement.

You can click on this article to become familiar with the symptoms of an anaphylaxis reaction.

Back to the whole reason of this blog post.

One of my friends found out that I was going to do something at home with Cooper. She too was going to do something at home with her son. So we decided to do it together so our boys would have someone cool to hang out with. Cuz you know, mom are not cool. Then another friend found out what we were doing and asked if she could join us. We decided to say "yes" before our ogers were unleashed. We have officially become ogers. So don't ask to join, we will say "no". Alright, enough of my dry sarcasm. For one post anyway.

Here are the three boys on their first day of preschool. Aren't they so cute? Especially the one in camouflage.

Well child check ups

Mason, Cooper, and Shiloh all had well child check ups, all in one day, one appointment after the other. We (by we I mean ME and the three kids) were at the office for about 2 hours total. Some waiting time, some being seen time. Although it was a bit crazy with three kids, by myself, I'd rather have them all seen at once, deal with the craziness one time, deal with waiting in the waiting room one time, then be done for another year. 

Mason's 6 year stats were: 54 lbs 49 inches

Cooper's 4 years stats were: 47 lbs 42 inches. 

 Funny thing about Cooper, his BMI is in the 98-99% for kids his age. He's pretty much been in the 90%'s his whole life. Our Doctor said that if he hadn't been Cooper's Doctor his whole life, he would probably be a bit worried. He made sure to advise me to make sure Cooper gets out and runs around. Maybe I should get him a giant hamster wheel. What do you think?

Sad thing about Cooper. Cooper also got the rest of the shots he will need for kindergarten next year. That was a treat! They first tried to give him his shots in his legs, but as the MA was going in for his leg, he got his arm free from my grasp and pull the needle away. So then it was on to his arms. Yup, my strong willed little boy got his hand free once again, and pulled the needle out of the opposite arm. After lots of screaming and protesting, all four shots were given.

Shiloh's 9 month stats (really 10 month, as we didn't go until she was 3 days shy of 10 months) were: 18 lbs 4 oz (40%) and 29 inches (82%). I think she is our skinniest baby so far.

Whitworth Football Game

In honor and remembrance of 9/11, Whitworth University offered all active and retired military, police, firefighters and EMT's free admission with up to 3 family members to watch a football game. Today the Whitworth Pirates faced off against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. Before the game, the announcer had all first responders stand and be recognized by the crowd.

I took Mason, because Cooper didn't want to go and here is Mason about 10 minutes into the game. He complained that it was too hot for him.

It was hot, I'll give him that, but I was having fun, despite the episode of the Gilmore Girls that was going on behind me (and you know what I mean if you have ever watched the show.) These two women would not be quiet, they were talking about everything except the game, I am not even sure they were watching, but man it was annoying.

Despite my best efforts to bribe him with soda and popcorn,we ended up leaving about half-way into the 2nd quarter, because Mason just couldn't handle the heat any more and frankly I couldn't handle the whining.

As soon as we got home, my pager went off and off I went to save the day, but now Mason claims he saved the day, because if it wasn't for him, I would have missed the page. I finished watching the game online when I got home.

The feel in the Pine Bowl was good, it was cool to be at a smaller college's football game.Whitworth ended up winning the game 34-7.

1st Grade

Introducing .... Mason, our first grader. I have been more worried about first grade than I was about kindergarten. The thing that worried me most was him being at school all day long, hoping he wouldn't get home sick or tired. He came home in a good mood though, so I think he is going to be just fine.

In his class ready to start the first grade.

When he got home, I asked him how his day was. "Fine" That's all I got out of him.

Silver Mountain Resort 2011

Last Friday night, we went with the Snells to Silver Mountain. We stayed over night at the resort and played in the water park both days and went up the gondola.

The best part for me was surprising Mason and Cooper with our little adventure.

Friday afternoon, both boys were at a friend's house playing. Which ended up being perfect. It gave me time to pack their stuff without them knowing. Jeff got off work early and went to pick up the boys. Neither of them were very happy that they had to leave their friends house. Jeff tried to tell them that we were going to go have some fun.

When we got home Jeff didn't let them get out of the van. Jeff came in alone and helped load the rest of our food and other stuff. They saw Jeff put our mayo, mustard, and chocolate milk in the back of the van. Of course they wanted to know what Jeff was doing with it. He told them we were taking it to Julia and Bill.

Here they are pouting.




Then I got Mason on camera complaining about us taking our mayo, mustard, and chocolate milk to Julia and Bill.

And what fun would the surprise be if Cooper didn't complain about something too. He didn't like that he couldn't stay at his friends house longer.

Once we got to the Snell's house, we again didn't let them out of the van because the little Snell people knew what we all doing and I didn't want them to ruin the surprise for Mason and Cooper.

Here they are complaining about not getting to play with Connor, Zach, and Ben. Oh poor Mason and Cooper, don't you feel SO bad for them?

Once we got close to the State line, Mason figured out that we were not going home and was mad that we were not. Cooper was so tried from complaining that he fell asleep.

We finally made it to Silver Mountain and they were very surprised and happy. I am kicking myself that I didn't get pictures of their faces.

We shared a huge condo with two bedrooms and a loft. All the little boys slept in the loft, which had a queen size bed and two twins.

Here is one of the views from our windows.

Ready for bed.

Getting ready to go to the water park.

Bill, Cooper, Mason, Ben, Julia

Saturday morning we went on the gondola. The gondola ride was cool. and long. There wasn't much to do at the top though. Just a swing set for the kids and a lame restaurant. Kind of disappointing. So after we let the kids play on the swing set for a bit, we headed back down to the water park and played there until dinner time.

At the top.

Over all it was a great little get away. One that we all decided would become our tradition over Labor Day weekend.

Obsession

Shiloh has an obsession with shoe laces. She also loves shoes, mainly to chew on them, but her most favorite thing is laces. I think she may be half dog. She also loves to untie shoes. Whenever we are are wearing shoes with laces, she crawls around after us trying to get her little hands on those laces.